Baseball has a marketing problem and fans were reminded of that problem when Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels center fielder, signed the most lucrative contract in professional sports history on Tuesday.

Trout, widely regarded as the best player in Major League Baseball, signed a 12-year, $430 million deal to remain in Hollywood. The only problem? He’s not receiving the Hollywood treatment like many other superstar athletes do in other leagues. Trout is so good that some people feel like he’s STILL underpaid. Crazy, right?

When you consider how MLB values each Win Above Replacement, you can make a compelling argument that Mike Trout will be underpaid during this deal. By a lot.

Just recently, ESPN released their 2019 World Fame 100 and there was exactly ONE Major League Baseball player on that list: Bryce Harper at #99. There were a large amount of cricket players, a national swimmer, and even Ninja, an eSports superstar, among others ahead of Harper.

What’s most alarming about this is that Harper’s reported endorsements ($13 million) and social media following (1.4 million followers) was drastically lower than a vast majority of the other members on the list. Now, part of that is obviously on the player, but a large amount of blame falls on the MLB and the Player’s Union. It’s also noteworthy that there was not a single baseball player on the Top 100 list in both 2017 and 2018.

ESPN released their Top 100 most famous athletes in the world ranking. Bryce Harper is the only baseball player at #99. Last year there were none. Baseball is tied with ice skating, swimming, Moto GP & Esports. This is the problem MLB needs to solve WAY more than pace of play.

That simply cannot happen. Major League Baseball doesn’t lack personalities either. Trout and Harper are just two of the incredible athletes in the MLB. Javy Baez, Francisco Lindor, Jose Altuve, Manny Machado, Kris Bryant, Nolan Arenado, Aaron Judge, Mookie Betts, Giancarlo Stanton, Paul Goldschmidt…you get the point. All of those players and many more are incredible talents in great markets that could easily be in commercials, all over social media, or even on cereal boxes to help and grow their brands while also helping to grow the sport of baseball in general.

The problem is a vast majority of the public probably doesn’t recognize any, or most, of those names that I just listed. Baseball has long been associated with being a boring or uninteresting sport.

So how can the MLB try and fix this problem? The league doesn’t have a money problem. Over $10 billion was generated in 2017, landing them second only to the NFL as the most profitable league in pro sports. That is also evidenced by the massive contracts recently handed out to four of the best players in their league.

While that isn’t meant to be a shot at the Tampa Bay Rays organization, clearly one of the lower budget teams in the league, it’s the $1.32 billion dispersed between for different players. Four incredibly marketable players, might I add.

So it’s pretty clear that people are watching, either in person or on TV, but the money and interest is there. So how do they take that next step to really get these guys to become recognizable faces? A good start would be more on-field interaction, particularly for TV entertainment.

This isn’t the first time that Major League Baseball has mic’d up players either. They actually had multiple players mic’d up during the 2018 All-Star Game as well.

Again, to reiterate, this isn’t entirely on Major League Baseball’s shoulders. A lot of this has to come from the players finding ways for them to expand their own brand.

It’s not a reach to say that Mike Trout is the best player baseball has seen since Ted Williams. Yet a sport built on history, can’t seem to find a way to market one of the greatest players to ever step foot on the diamond. It’s a real shame.

Well ladies and gentlemen, we’ve done it. We’ve finally moved beyond the fad of 80’s nostalgia and have found ourselves planted firmly in the angsty, flannel-populated depths of 90’s nostalgia. It was only a matter of time, I suppose, but still…I thought I’d have more time with the neon and synth-wave.

Captain Marvel had the important and almost impossible task of serving as the final film before the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe’s grand finale in Avengers: Endgame while also needing to introduce the first ever Marvel heroine to headline her own film. Either one of these two jobs would be daunting in their own right, so it was an incredibly bold move by Disney and Marvel to try and hit two birds with one Brie Larson powered stone.

I guess that would look something like…this? I don’t know, I just did this in MS Paint in like 3 hours.

So does Captain Marvel succeed at either of it’s two jobs?

The answer is: …maybe?

I’m a bit biased here (which I think is something I say every single review because it’s always true) but Captain Marvel is one of my favorite superheroes. I have trade paperbacks collecting her most recent runs and I play her in almost every Marvel video-game in which I’m given the chance to do so because she’s just a cool character with a great design and really unique powers.

But even as THAT kind of Captain Marvel fanboy, I was still a little disappointed by Captain Marvel the film. This didn’t really have anything to do with the character herself, because the character was pretty great and Brie Larson played her wonderfully. The “introducing-Captain-Marvel” aspect of the film, as it were, was a success.

I think my disappointment here stems more from the Avengers: Endgame build-up side of the equation. As a Marvel Cinematic Universe film, Captain Marvel was asked to deliver it’s own story while also serving as a lone episode in the much greater saga that Marvel Studios is trying to tell. And as unfair as that might be, I still have to consider that when I review the film because that’s the route that Marvel chose to take when they started this whole ambitious connected universe thing back in 2008.

With Superhero Movie, as everyone reading this already knows.

And it’s in this job that Captain Marvel falls short. It doesn’t really add anything at all to the existing Avengers universe. Sure, we get to see Agent Coulson and Nick Fury back in the day as young guns. Sure, we get to see how Nick Fury loses his eye. Yeah, we get to see Lee Pace’s Ronan the Accuser make an almost completely pointless cameo (who here among the casuals even remembers his villain from the first Guardians of the Galaxy?) before buggering off to be beaten in a dance competition by Star Lord. But there’s really not much else here to hype us all up for Avengers: Endgame outside of the brief post-credits sequence that’s also a bit underwhelming. The entire film taking place in the 90’s is both it’s biggest strength and it’s biggest weakness: this lets it flourish as a standalone origin film, but fall utterly short at being the penultimate episode of the MCU’s 10 year experiment.

I guess the best comparison I can make is to a TV show. Imagine if Game of Thrones spent 8 seasons getting us all MEGA hyped for the very last episode of the series. Everything we know and love about the show will all come to a conclusion in that episode. Now, imagine the episode immediately before that is just a flashback episode following Robert Baratheon’s rebellion against the Mad King Aerys however many years ago. Sure, this would be a nifty origin story for a cool character but it is absolutely going to break the pacing into pieces. You can’t have the last bit of build-up before your story’s climax be a flashback to events that are mostly inconsequential to the present day story. Unlike Robert Baratheon, Captain Marvel will find herself at play in Avengers: Endgame, so I guess that comparison isn’t perfect. But I still came away a bit disappointed that Captain Marvel didn’t do a better job of building up to the very last entry of Marvel’s current story.

Having said all of that, the movie itself is a lot of fun.

The plot is carried along with a semi-disjointed storytelling style where our hero doesn’t remember her past at all but is bombarded at random times with images from her former life. The audience is kept on edge not knowing exactly how our hero became the powerhouse she is today, which kind of twists the typical origin story formula on its head. Usually we just see the straightforward progression from normal spunky human to superpowered badass, but this movie gives us a superpowered badass first and then shows us later that she was basically already a badass before that anyway.

Seriously, this is who she was before she became a superhero. Bruce Banner was just a freaking nerd.

The Skrull are our alien villains for the film, who also serve as it’s biggest problem at least to a Marvel purist such as myself. Without spoiling exactly what happens, I’ll just say that I was a bit disappointed to see the way that the Marvel Cinematic Universe handled the Skrull. When Marvel first announced that they had the rights to the iconic shape-shifting villains, I was beyond excited to see some of the most nefarious and sneaky comic villains come to the big screen. 2008’s Secret Invasion story arc in the comics basically had every single hero losing trust in one another as the Skrulls secretly invaded Earth and mounted a foothold while being disguised as important heroes and villains. There were twists and turns every step of the way and it was really engaging. Maybe Marvel felt that they already did something too similar to this in the movies with their Hydra storyline and maybe that’s why they decided to take the Skrull in a bit of a different direction this time around to avoid repeating themselves. Regardless, I expected the Skrull to be a bit more…well…I don’t know…Skrull-like.

And hunt down the seven dragon balls like they always wanted.

The Kree-Skrull War is iconic among Marvel fanboys, and it’s this conflict that Captain Marvel finds herself in between before falling to Earth in the glorious age of the 1990’s. Her goal is simple: she needs to find and defend a valuable MacGuffin from the evil Skrull who’ve come to claim it for themselves. She finds herself in a very 90’s America, complete with Blockbuster, Radioshack, and other very 90’s things that the film kind of hammers you over the head with. Her unlikely partnership with Nick Fury is even straight out of a 90’s buddy cop film. As a child of the 90’s, it’s fun to revisit the world right before the turn of the century ushered in the social media and constant connectivity of the present day, but I realized that the 90’s don’t have quite the same charm and innocence that the recent onslaught of 80’s nostalgia does. There’s less sense of wonder and far more cynicism, which I guess is right in line with what the 90’s were all about. Captain Marvel plays off this nostalgia in spades and even Stan Lee’s cameo is a love-letter to a certain film from the era that also served as one of his earliest cameo appearances.

But there’s also a lot about this time period that isn’t quite so glamorous. Carol Danvers and her friend Maria Rambeau (played awesomely by Lashana Lynch) are treated like second class pilots just because of their gender. There’s also an instance when a random scumbag tells Danvers that she’d look prettier with a smile, so she steals his bike like a badass. The film does a good job of showing some of the BS that women are expected to take from men on the average day, without the whole film feeling like a Women’s Empowerment PSA. I think the film’s biggest strength is that it isn’t trying to preach about how women are just as good as men: it just nonchalantly shows this to you instead. There’s no huge fanfare because it’s not a big deal, and by making it not a big deal the film’s message is made even more effective. Carol trying to prove herself to the men who control her life would have been making it a big deal, but Carol ultimately realizing she has nothing to prove to them is the film’s true success and the message little girls everywhere should be picking up on. It’s actually pretty genius in it’s simplicity. Women’s true strength comes not from doing the same things a man can do, but from doing what they want to do because they have nothing to prove to anyone. In that respect, I think Captain Marvel did an excellent job of giving women everywhere a Marvel hero they can get behind, it’s just a shame that it took like 21 films to do it.

What I feel for Captain Marvel is basically summed up best by my favorite Facebook relationship status: It’s complicated. I think the movie was pretty good, but not spectacular. It was a pretty typical entry into the Marvel pantheon and didn’t really take a ton of huge narrative risks, but was still a solid movie with decent storytelling and great comedic moments. The villains, as always, were not that great or compelling. The flashback into the 90’s was great for nostalgic reasons, but less great for Avengers: Endgame reasons because it kept the story trapped in the past. Brie Larson is already one of my favorite actresses, and I think she did a wonderful job bringing Carol Danvers to life. The film also contains one of my absolute favorite scenes in any Marvel movie to date, and I’m sure you’ll find it just as powerful and inspiring as I did the next time you get knocked down and have to pick yourself back up. I’ll definitely buy this when it comes out, but I’m more excited to see what Avengers: Endgame and the sequel can do for a character that I believe has a lot of potential moving forward.

The offseason is a time for teams to re-evaluate their rosters, make trades, and sign players in free agency. So far, we’ve seen superstars get traded and some of the top free agents signed. Here are some of the winners and losers during the off-season up to this point.

Winners

Oakland Raiders

For the final game of the 2018 season, the Raiders lined up Jordy Nelson, Seth Roberts, and Marcell Ateman as their primary receivers. They fixed this problem by first trading for Antonio Brown for a 2019 third and fifth round pick. They’ve then gone on to sign wide receivers J.J. Nelson from the Arizona Cardinals and Tyrell Williams from the Los Angeles Chargers.

Baltimore Ravens

The Ravens said goodbye to Joe Flacco by trading him to the Denver Broncos and have officially started the Lamar Jackson era.

The team released RB Alex Collins after being arrested following a car accident. They responded by signing Mark Ingram to a three-year deal. Ingram split time in the backfield with Alvin Kamara last season with the New Orleans Saints but will look to be the lead back in Baltimore. Now, the Ravens have a true RB1 and someone Jackson can rely on to hand the ball off to. Collins only averaged 3.6 yards per carry last season while Ingram averaged 4.7.

It didn’t look good after the Ravens lost FS Eric Weddle to the Los Angeles Rams but they quickly replaced him with long time Seattle Seahawk Earl Thomas. Thomas is joining one of the best defenses in the league. The Ravens ranked first in yards allowed and second in points allowed last season. Hopefully, the loss of Weddle and Terrell Suggs isn’t too much for the defense to overcome but Earl Thomas is one of the best in the business.

The team also signed CB Justin Bethel to a two-year deal.

Cleveland Browns

CLEVELAND, OH – NOVEMBER 27: Odell Beckham #13 of the New York Giants scores a second quarter touchdown in front of Marcus Burley #26 of the Cleveland Browns at FirstEnergy Stadium on November 27, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)

The Browns nearly broke Twitter when the Odell Beckham Jr. trade was announced. The Giants sent OBJ and Olivier Vernon to the Browns in exchange for Jabrill Peppers, Kevin Zeitler, a 2019 first round pick, and a 2019 third round pick. The addition of Beckham gives Baker Mayfield another weapon and reunites Beckham with former high school and college teammate Jarvis Landry.

Along with Vernon, the Browns added Sheldon Richardson to their defensive line this offseason. The two combined for 11.5 sacks last season and will join 23-year-old Myles Garrett.

The Browns have also signed TE Demetrius Harris and OT Greg Robinson.

San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers made a huge splash in free agency be signing linebackers Dee Ford and Kwon Alexander. Ford finished last season with 13.0 sacks and seven forced fumbles while 24-year-old Alexander contributed a sack and two forced fumbles in seven games. The 49ers ranked 22nd in sacks last season and the middle of the pick in forced fumbles but the addition of these two linebackers should bolster this defense.

The team also added RB Tevin Coleman to it’s running back committee that already includes Jerick McKinnon, Matt Breida, and another free agent signee, Raheem Mostert. Coleman is the only player to remain healthy all of last season and his hoping to become the number one back after sitting behind Devonta Freeman in Atlanta for so long.

The 49ers couldn’t complete a trade with the Pittsburgh Steelers to aquire Antonio Brown which would’ve made them the hottest team in free agency so they settled for Jordan Matthews who has spent a majority of his career with the Philadelphia Eagles. Matthews will join the wide receiver core of Dante Pettis, Marquise Goodwin, and Pierre Garcon.

The team has also signed DB Jimmie Ward, OG Mike Person, and CB Jason Verrett.

New York Jets

After sitting out last season, Le’Veon Bell has found a new home in New York. Bell is a huge upgrade from last season and completely gives this Jets offense some new life after finishing 26th in rushing last season. To be considered one of the leagues best backs anymore, you need to be a dual-threat back, and Bell brings that to the table. Throughout his career, Bell averages five catches and 42.9 receiving yards per game.

Losers

Pittsburgh Steelers

The Steelers lost two huge skill position players in Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell. The wide receiver position is thin now with JuJu Smith-Schuster as their only legitimate threat. These two losses are huge for a team that has been in discussion as one of the best AFC teams for so long, and if we look at two of my winners above, the Ravens and Browns happen to be in the same division.

New York Giants

Much like the Steelers, the Giants lost a top five wide receiver in Odell Beckham Jr., but at least they received something in return. They managed to land a first and third round pick, along with safety Jabrill Peppers in the trade. However, the Giants were about ready to revamp their offense with a new quarterback in the near future and they drafted a stud in a running back in Saquon Barkley last year. Now their future quarterback will have Sterling Shepard and Corey Coleman as his top two receivers. In fact here is how Eli Manning has fared without OBJ over the last couple seasons.

The Giants have also traded away Olivier Vernon and lost Landon Collins to the Washington Redskins in free agency.

Who Else is Left?

Although many big names have already been signed there are still some guys that are needing new contracts and/or new homes. Some names left to be signed include Ndamukong Suh, Randall Cobb, Demaryius Thomas, Eric Berry, Ezekiel Ansah, Jordy Nelson, Clay Matthews, Adrian Clayborn, and Justin Houston.

Well, we’ve finally made it. The last pay-per-view on the schedule before “The Showcase of the Immortals,” aka: WrestleMania 35.

I’m not sure how they did it, but the McMahon family found a way to smash in two fairly significant PPV events in the last month & somehow the talent hasn’t missed a beat.

They better hope that doesn’t start now, as they’re in the finally home stretch before the BIG one next month at Medlife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ.

Kicking off live tonight at 7pm ET from Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, OH, here are my predictions for WWE Fastlane.

Rey Mysterio vs Andrade *Kickoff Show

Unfortunately, I fear WWE missed out on a heck of an opportunity to make this rivalry one of the best of the year so far. Every time these competitors have gotten in the ring together over the last two months, they’ve brought the house down with their in-ring chemistry. So the fact that this match is on the kick off show & never really got much room to grow as a feud is frustrating. Nonetheless, I still expect a great match, but sadly won’t get the amount of time it truly deserves.

The wrestling business is one of extreme peaks & valleys. It wasn’t long ago that both Nakamara and Rusev were respective United States Champions and had spots on PPV cards to build momentum. Fast forward to the present, where their failing attempt at a tag team has resulted in hardly any TV time and being bumped down to the kickoff show. On the other side will be Big E & Xavier Woods, whose main focus has been on their brother Kofi Kingston’s unfair treatment by Vince McMahon.

For being the “A Show,” RAW clearly has always had the lesser build & hype in it’s tag team division and it shows. Not only has this forced experiment of Roode & Gable yielded a championship run previously, but they have yet another chance here. Also note that another forced, but highly successful thus far, NXT call-up team of Black & Ricochet are already contenders for the titles after only three matches on RAW, this proves overall lack of confidence in the brand’s roster.

I won’t take much time on this one. Black & Ricochet have to be called up and put in this situation to try to revitalize Raw’s tag division, otherwise this would all be a waste of time & space for another team.

Winner: Aleister Black & Ricochet

Smackdown Women’s Championship– (C) Asuka vs Mandy Rose

In a match that has had very little buildup and a champion who’s hardly been on TV at all over the last month or so, this is my candidate for quickest match of the night. I like both of these competitors a lot, but they received no creative help building this bout and sadly the only thing that kept this off the kickoff show was that it’s a title match. I don’t expect an upset by Rose here, but with less than a month before WrestleMania, the SmackDown Women’s division needs some kind of shakeup to draw interest back. Especially considering that it’s two talents, Charlotte & Becky Lynch, are preparing to fight for a chance at the RAW women’s crown.

Winner: Asuka

Smackdown Tag Team Championship – (C) The Usos vs The Greatest Tag Team in the World (The Miz & Shane McMahon)

The Usos became six-time tag team champions last month at the Elimination Chamber PPV and further cemented their place as not only the best team on SmackDown Live, but the best in WWE overall. Shane & The Miz, who the Usos beat that night, look to bounce back in Miz’s hometown to retake the gold.

A few months ago, I incorrectly predicted a heel turn by either Shane or Miz on his teammate. So I’m here to admit that I jumped the gun before, but I fully expect it tonight! I predicted the Miz would turn previously, but I’m going with Shane turning on his partner in front of Miz’s father, who will most likely be front row. This shock will set up their ‘Mania match that will undoubtably steal the show as McMahon seems to do every year.

The downside to this, however, is what the Smackdown tag picture could look like after this. Could we see another Usos vs New Day classic? Or maybe The Hardy’s or The Bar jump back up? Should be an interesting next few weeks.

This is the first ever title defense of these brand new titles that were absolutely deserved and overdue after all the hard work this company’s women have put in during the Women’s Revolution. It was clear all along who they’d crown first with these titles, and I don’t expect Banks & Bayley to give them up just yet. Jax & Tamina’s cousin connection is formidable and interesting to say the least, but with the overall hype the former has gotten, I don’t see them walking out as the new champions. The McMahons can’t wait to have them defend their titles on all brands, and they’ve got the perfect team to do it.

Winner: Boss N Hug Connection

The Shield vs Baron Corbin, Drew McIntyre, & Bobby Lashley

News of Roman Reigns’ cancer being in remission sent more shockwaves through national news than his initial cancer announcement last fall. He made a promise he’d beat cancer again and be back in the ring as soon as he could, and we’re all glad to see that he did indeed keep that promise.

In a surprising turn, as soon as he got back, it didn’t take long at all before he got the band back together and convinced Rollins & Ambrose to put aside their differences. Unfortunately, it’s against the same opponents we’ve seen them face for the better part of the last year in Corbin & his goons. McIntyre & Lashley have had solid runs since we last saw this match though, so that hands another layer of excitement for this matchup. However, with this being Reigns’ first match post-cancer, there is no way The Shield doesn’t capitalize on that moment & walk away with the win.

Winner: Sierra. Hotel. India. Echo. Lima. Delta.

Charlotte Flair vs Becky Lynch

If Becky wins, she gets added to the Raw Women’s Championship match at WrestleMania that was taken away from her & given to Charlotte by Vince McMahon.

Prior to Roman Reigns returning from cancer, this was by far the greatest thing that could have happen to the company in the form of Lynch’s momentum with the WWE Universe. Her constant back and forth battle with Ronda Rousey on social media has been nothing short of entertaining and hilarious. Lynch will find a way to win this match, probably with some help from an interfering Rousey, setting up this triple threat that in my opinion should close out the show next month at WrestleMania as the true main event.

WWE Championship – (C) Daniel Bryan vs Kevin Owens

With Kofi Kingston being replaced by Kevin Owens, I honetly lost interest in this match. I’m a huge fan of both Bryan & Owens, but Kingston getting his shot excited me. Undoubtably saving Kingston for his big moment after the reaction he got last month at Elimination Chamber, this match seems like a good replacement. Building on the similar storyline of Becky Lynch, Kofi’s pop will only be amplified by this recent bump in the road.

Even with a returning Owens, I expect this match to be very clean and technical, but overall for Bryan to pull out the victory. However, I do expect Eric Rowan to be a problem for Owens, and for his good buddy Sami Zayn to make his return to balance out the odds. I expect the official announcement of Kingston being Bryan’s next opponent next week on Smackdown Live.

The world has come a long way since 1992’s Mortal Kombat was first released into arcades. Much to the chagrin of bored soccer moms, the hyper-violent 2D fighter became a huge success and spawned a massive crossover franchise consisting of videogames, movies, comic books, and everything in between. You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn’t know Scorpion’s signature “GET OVER HERE” voice-line and even harder pressed to find somebody who doesn’t immediately start dancing when the insanely catchy techno theme song for the 1995 film begins to play.

I’ll just link it here so you can go jam to it yourself. Yes, it’s still fabulous.

But after almost 30 years of being in the public spotlight, what does Mortal Kombat 11 need to do to not only keep the franchise fresh, but to make itself the best entry in the fighting series to date? Here’s five things I think this game absolutely has to have if it wants to enter the ring with it’s predecessors.

1. A Good Story

Okay, okay. I know what you’re thinking. This is a fighting game where you can rip off somebody’s leg and beat them to death with it, why on Earth would anybody care about the story?

Well I’m here to tell you that Mortal Kombat has quietly had not only the best storyline of any fighting game franchise to date, it’s also one of the coolest stories in videogames period. I’m serious. The Mortal Kombat tournament was initially a safeguard put in place by the Elder Gods in order to ensure that none of the existing realms could invade the others without first winning 10 tournaments in a row against them. This ensured that every realm at least had a fighting chance to defend itself. Beyond this relatively simple premise is a story that includes as much lore as your average Elder Scrolls game as each of the series characters has their own clear motivations and purpose. There are smaller scale conflicts like the one between Scorpion and Sub-Zero, two ninjas from rival clans. Scorpion is a literal hellspawn who was resurrected after his entire family and clan was wiped out by Sub Zero’s, and his quest for vengeance is one of the most personal and compelling stories across the games. Then there are the large scale conflicts that make up the majority of the big story beats, like the invasion of Earthrealm by the forces of Outworld, or the Deadly Alliance forming to try and resurrect the ancient army of Onaga the Dragon King. Each of these large story moments is filled with smaller character arcs and interplay between the characters, so the whole thing comes across as Game of Thrones style intrigue where every character tries to manipulate events to their own advantage. If none of that makes any sense to you whatsoever, then that’s perfectly normal. But what I’m saying is that there’s an incredibly complex and captivating story just waiting to be uncovered, and the story trailer for Mortal Kombat 11 promises to deliver in a big way.

The official Mortal Kombat 11 story trailer.

2. Fun Fighting Mechanics

A fighting game is, at it’s core, only as good as it’s mechanics. When the first Mortal Kombat came out in 1992, it was mechanically very simple. Each character had the exact same basic attack moves and were only differentiated mechanically by their unique special moves. These were moves like Scorpion’s iconic spear, Sub Zero’s Ice Ball, or Johnny Cage’s punch to the groin.

Some things are simply timeless.

In 2019, you can’t really get away with that kind of simplicity. Each fighter needs to feel fundamentally different from each other. A scummy criminal grappler like Kano shouldn’t fight the same way as a thunder god like Raiden. Every character needs to feel unique with every punch and the fighting itself needs to be simple enough for casual players but complicated enough to be played at a high level. Netherrealm Studios has excelled at finding this balance ever since the 2011 Mortal Kombat reboot saw the series going back to it’s 2D roots. You can still have fun button-mashing in the games they’ve produced since then, but there’s also a deep and intricate combat system for those who wish to dive in and explore further. I expect Mortal Kombat 11 to be no different.

3. A Great Kast

I know cast is spelled with a “C”, but it’s sort of tradition in the Mortal Kombat universe to use a “K” whenever possible. What’s also tradition is having a great and diverse cast of characters, something that Mortal Kombat has managed to do well for…most…of it’s games.

There was a bit of a dark age in Mortal Kombat history, and that dark age was almost entirely the Playstation 2 era Mortal Kombat games in the early and mid 2000’s, otherwise known as “The 3D Era” due to the series’ switch to 3D combat. These games had mostly uninspired rosters of bland characters that were just lazy amalgams of existing characters. Mavado was just a worse Kabal. Kira and Hsu Hao were boring ripoffs of Sonya and Kano. Kobra was almost literally just Ken from Street Fighter. And so on, and so forth.

Even though he was basically a joke/easter egg character, the fact that Mokap exists can never be forgiven.

Mortal Kombat 11 needs to have a great cast, full of fan favorites and new characters who can actually stand toe to toe with characters that have existed for 30 years. It’s no easy task, but I have complete faith in Netherrealm Studios after Mortal Kombat X had some of the coolest original characters yet. There was a badass Outworld Cowboy named Erron Black. A creepy bug lady named D’vorah. An Aztec God throwback named Kotal Kahn. These characters and others introduced in that game were the first new main story characters in the Mortal Kombat universe since 2007’s Mortal Kombat Armageddon and they are LEAPS AND BOUNDS ahead of most of the PS2 era characters. From the new characters revealed so far in Mortal Kombat 11, it seems that the cast is once again in good hands.

Ladies, this is Geras and yes he will absolutely be your new main.

4. 3D Era Love

I know what I said up there. The 3D era was basically the dark ages of the Mortal Kombat series. But that doesn’t mean that Netherrealm Studios can just sweep it under the rug and act like it all never happened. Half the reason the timeline was rebooted in the first place was to get rid of most of these bad characters, but a lot of people like myself are fond of some of the characters from this time period and even are starting to miss some of the less outrageous ones. There are a few really cool character ideas and concepts that could and should be expanded upon in the new timeline. Havik is one of the most popular among fans from the 3D era because he’s a macabre body-horror character who’s sole purpose is to cause as much chaos as possible.

Or maybe he’s just out to have a good time and is seriously misunderstood.

Mortal Kombat X had a comic tie-in that was actually outstanding, and it fleshed out Havik and a few other 3D era fighters that had otherwise been entirely forgotten by the main series games. This got a lot of fans excited for these fresh takes on what were once disappointing characters, and a lot of people would like to see what Netherrealm Studios can do with a second attempt now that they’ve hit their stride. I think if Mortal Kombat 11 is to be the best entry in the franchise, it needs to remember that the 3D era exists. They need to show fans that they are good enough to make even the most forgettable characters interesting, while paying homage to some of the more obscure characters from this time period.

If I’m being honest, if any of my five points will wind up being a disappointment, I expect it will be this one. I don’t think Netherrealm Studios is all too keen to revisit this era, preferring to invent new characters instead of reinvent older ones. Many characters from the 3D era have been confirmed as dead in the new timeline or just make passing cameos in the comics. Having said that, there was a roster leak for Mortal Kombat 11 that suggested at least one 3D era character might be coming back and the entire story seems to revolve around time-travel. So maybe there is hope after all.

Frost was basically a female Sub-Zero cosplay, but we’ll see what Netherrealm can do to reinvent her if the leaks are true.

5. Violence

Look, I know there’s a big stink about how playing violent video games causes violent behavior. But I’ve been playing Mortal Kombat since I was 3 years old and I have yet to violently pull somebody’s spine out through their neck. The point is: you can play violent video games and be a (mostly) well-adjusted human being like myself. The violence in the Mortal Kombat universe has always walked the line between gristly and comical, and it’s since taken on an almost artistic quality. There’s something sort of majestic about seeing the number of creative ways that Netherrealm Studios can come up with for one fighter to dispose of another.

The mix of revulsion and glee upon seeing the latest over-the-top Fatality is just so unabashedly Mortal Kombat that it would be a shame if Netherrealm Studios ever got rid of it. They tried it once in 2008’s Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, which saw the likes of Batman and Superman going toe-to-toe with the Mortal Kombat cast. The violence was toned down in order to give the game a “Teen” rating instead of the usual “Mature” rating, and the game wasn’t successful enough for their publisher to avoid bankruptcy. It had other problems, but the lack of violence definitely contributed to the mediocre response it received. It didn’t really have that trademark Mortal Kombat feel and so they fixed that with the next game by being more violent than ever.

Back in my day, you had the option to be friends with them instead…which pissed your opponent off even more.

Mortal Kombat 11 will feature something Netherrealm Studios calls GoreTech, which is basically a new engine built entirely on creating gory bloodbaths and making them look fantastic. And having seen some of the new fatalities in gameplay streams, I have to say: they’re freaking disgusting. They’re also hilarious and absurd and miles above being over-the-top, but that’s always been part of the charm. It’s really no different than watching a slasher film.

I firmly believe that if Mortal Kombat 11 can manage to do these five things, it will be the best entry in the series yet. Even if it only manages to do three or four out of the five, I still think it will be a strong entry into the series and a fantastic game in its own right. If you’re interested in getting your hands on Mortal Kombat 11, there’s a stress test on March 12th-15th that you can sign up for here or you can get access to the Closed Beta on March 28th-31st by simply pre-ordering the game.

It’s finally upon us; March Madness is officially (almost) here! Some of the smaller conferences already have their conference tournaments underway, but this weekend will widely be regarded as the last week for most conferences’ regular season before their respective conference tournaments start.

There are quite a few big games this weekend that will dictate some of the conferences’ regular season winners, and so we will start off with the biggest rivalry in the sport with the Duke-North Carolina showdown. In their last matchup, we saw Zion Williamson go down with a leg injury and the Tar Heels snuck out with a victory. Without Zion, this Duke team is just completely different. They nearly lost to Wake Forest earlier in the week, who resides near the bottom of the ACC. If Zion can play, this will be quite the interesting game and we could see Duke split the series. However, if he doesn’t, I see the Tar Heels winning this one. If they win and Virginia loses its game with Louisville, the Tar Heels will be the sole ACC regular season champs.

Moving on to the Big Ten, the biggest game will be another great in-state rivalry between Michigan and Michigan State. The Spartans won the first game in Ann Arbor by playing great defense and smothering the Wolverines to under 27% from the 3-point land and six assists. Both teams may have key injuries too, with Michigan’s Charles Matthews a gametime decision, and Nick Ward for the Spartans still out with a hand injury. After Purdue lost to Minnesota, the winner of this game will be the regular season conference champion.

We jump to the Big XII, where for the first time in over a decade, the Kansas Jayhawks will not be regular season champions. Texas Tech and Kansas State both sit atop the standings, and if one of them wins and the other loses, we will have a sole champion in the conference.

The SEC seems very top-heavy this year, with Tennessee, Kentucky, and LSU all sitting near the top of the standings. After these three is a clear drop off in talent, with Auburn and South Carolina four games back. Tennessee and LSU are both tied at the top of the conference, with Kentucky a game behind. Each of these teams could be serious contenders come National Tournament time, but outside of them no one really stands out as a real threat.

And the last of the Power 5 conference is the PAC 12, which is by far the weakest of the bunch. Washington has already solidified themselves as the regular season champions. Although this conference may seem weak and uninteresting, this could be quite the spectacle come conference tournament time. This conference may only send one or two teams to the big dance, so depending on who wins the PAC 12 tournament and earns the automatic bid, this conference could cause quite the shakeup for the tournament committee and the bubble teams.

Speaking of bubble teams, this will be the last real chance for them to prove their worth to the tournament committee. Finishing strong in the regular season, as well as a solid run in the conference tournament could help their chances to make the big dance. The committee seems to be valuing strong wins over bad losses, so even if your team got off to a bad start, a couple of big wins in their tournament could be enough to keep their season alive.

The Big Ten and ACC are the two clear best conferences in the nation. The Big XII and SEC are both solid conferences, and throw in the Big East as well, but after that, most conferences won’t be sending more than a few teams to the tournament. So, for bubble teams, you really want to see a team that’s locked in for the tournament win their conference tournament. If a team that’s not a lock for the tournament wins an automatic bid, that’s one more bid taken away from those bubble teams, making it even more difficult for them to get in.

With only a few games left before the big tournament, things are starting to finally take shape. We know for the most part who’s locked in and who still has some work to do. This is one of the most exciting times in sports. This is March Madness.

Since the end of the Steelers season in the Divisional Round of the AFC playoffs, a lot has been discussed about the future of Pro Bowl WR Antonio Brown.

Whether he would be able to get past his issues and stay with the team, get traded, or be released entirely were all potential routes to go down with the outspoken player.

After weeks of tweets from Brown, conversations between he & Steelers’ brass, & all the media coverage you could imagine, it finally appears that the team is close to moving on from Brown via trade.

It is being reported that the Oakland Raiders, Tennessee Titans, & that team in Washington D.C. have shown the most interest in a trade. Also, it appears the Arizona Cardinals & New York Jets have fallen out of the running, which I assume Brown is okay with given the records of those teams last season.

Keep in mind that although Brown has been a bit of a lightening rod over the past few seasons, he does still bring with him an NFL record six straight seasons of 100+ catches, and three years left on his contract with zero guaranteed money.

So whichever team pulls the trigger on a trade, they won’t necessarily be stuck with him financially if it isn’t the right fit for either side.

Of those three teams mentioned, lets take a look into each situation that Brown would be heading into if traded to one of those places.

Oakland Raiders

The Raiders clearly have the most assets to give up after trading Khalil Mack & Amari Cooper, and they’re in major need of some help on the offensive side of the ball for Derek Carr. Of the three teams, I believe this would be the best situation for both the team and player.

However, with Jon Gruden still trying to put his vision into motion for the team, it’s currently uncertain if he’ll truly want to give up one of his first round draft picks for a veteran WR who will be on the wrong side of 30 years old by the start of the season.

Also, don’t forget that Antonio Brown has gotten pretty accustomed to winning at least nine or ten games a season. With the Raiders coming off one of their toughest seasons under their new coach, it remains to be seen how Brown would react to going from a constant contender to a team just trying to catch up in their own division.

Tennessee Titans

The Titans are an interesting team to see in the mix for for Brown as they have quite a bit of offensive talent, but injuries have halted their progress over the past few years.

Their top two targets, Corey Davis & Taywan Taylor, have been battling different injuries since being taken in the first & third rounds, respectively, in 2017. So adding a veteran who knows how to take care of his body and hasn’t missed more than two games a season the last six years could only benefit them. Not to mention, Marcus Mariota could stand to have a more reliable WR1 option.

Adding Antonio Brown would only make things more interesting in the increasingly difficult & talent-packed AFC South division.

Washington

Going to Washington would be the worst option for Brown because there’s nothing for Brown to look forward to on this team.

Sure, he would have the offensive-minded Jay Gruden who would make sure to utilize him the most efficient way possible, but the question still remains: who would be throwing him the ball? Alex Smith still isn’t scheduled to be anywhere close to returning by training camp or at all next season. We’ve known for years that Colt McCoy is not a long-term answer to start for an NFL team with a 7-20 record as a starter in the league.

So where does that leave them? Do they go draft a guy early in the first round like Dwayne Haskins or sign a free agent like Teddy Bridgewater or Tyrod Taylor? It remains to be seen who winds up under center for them to start the season.

I already mentioned that Brown might not take too kindly to losing more than he did while in Pittsburg. But also keep in mind his mindset potentially going into a team with no real answers at QB, which he’s also never really had to worry about before.

None of the teams above are a perfect fit, but if one of these teams are going to pull the trigger on him, I’d like to see him go to the Titans because they’d give him the best chance to win right now and surround him with the best talent to help ease his workload.

There were also discussions early on about his desire to maybe go play in San Francisco, which would be an outstanding fit for everyone involved. But GM John Lynch better plan to make a move fast if he does in fact share the same desire to bring Brown in.

If I had to pick a “sleeper” team to come in and make a play for the superstar WR, I’d pick the New Orleans Saints who always seems to retool their offense every year for Drew Brees to have another amazing year and lead them toward another potential championship run.

There was also word that the Steelers preferred to move Brown to the NFC so they wouldn’t aid a team they might eventually see in the playoffs, but with Washington being the only NFC team in that top three, it appears likely Brown may stay put in the AFC.

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https://thebenchsports.net/2019/03/06/only-one-team-makes-sense-for-antonio-brown-trade/feed/0antonio-brownfrominsidethevoidTrae Young Making His Case for Rookie of the Yearhttps://thebenchsports.net/2019/03/04/trae-young-making-his-case-for-rookie-of-the-year/
https://thebenchsports.net/2019/03/04/trae-young-making-his-case-for-rookie-of-the-year/#respondMon, 04 Mar 2019 14:24:00 +0000http://thebenchsports.net/?p=1741

Many have already called it wraps on the Rookie of the Year award by already giving it to Luka Doncic after having a stellar first half of the season. I’m here to remind you that their are two halves in the season and Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young is pushing his way into the conversation for the award.

Young had a solid first half of the season but struggled with being a consistent shooter. However, Young has found his stroke going back to just before All-Star weekend began. He’s continued that impressive shooting performance since, shooting 48% from the field post All-Star weekend compared to 40% before the All-Star break. He’s vastly improved his three point shot by shooting 51% from behind the arc compared to 31% the first half of the season.

Trae Young has also been a distributor on the floor averaging 9.5 assists per game post All-Star game raising his average to 7.8 on the season (6th in the NBA).

The question remains, is Young’s high level of mid-season play enough to trump a full consistent season from Doncic? My answer is yes. Especially if he can keep up this level of play and I don’t see any reason he shouldn’t be able to. He’s getting plenty of minutes and the Hawks are relying on him for scoring as he is shooting 20.7 times a game since the break. Both of those with improved consistency could allow Trae Young to surpass Doncic for the Rookie of the Year award.

That isn’t in any way discrediting what Doncic has done on the floor for Dallas this season. Doncic started out the season strong and ran away early with the Rookie of the Year award. The Mavericks have leaned on Doncic to be the team’s leading scorer and ball distributor. At 6’7″, he also provides the team with rebounding.

Here are the two players season stats as of today…

Luka Doncic 21.0 PPG, 7.2 RPG, 5.6 APG

Trae Young 18.3 PPG, 3.4 RPG, 7.8 APG

Currently, it looks to be neck and neck with Doncic just ahead of Young for the award, with Phoenix Suns center Deandre Ayton behind those two. Marvin Bagley is trying to make his case after playing really well lately but it is too little too late for Bagley to enter the conversation.

This season has been somewhat of a struggle for the Boston Celtics, and with that being said the attention has turned to Kyrie Irving, the resident superstar in Bean Town. Irving, before the beginning of the season, was VERY sure that he was planning on, or at the very least had plans to, re-sign with a Celtics team that without him or Gordon Hayward took LeBron to game seven of the ECF just last season. With Irving and Hayward back and the continued development of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, it was nowhere but up for a team with great young players and a lot of assets to use in a potential trade. However as we ahead toward the final stretch of the regular season, the Celtics are 37-25, on a skid, and most importantly falling behind in a conference many expected them to dominate with LBJ’s move out west. If the playoffs were to start today, the C’s would be matched up against the surging 76er’s. Last postseason, Boston routed Philly, but that series might go a little differently this year.

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James catching up with an old teammate in Kyrie Irving.

The biggest concern with Kyrie is the sudden change in his long-term plans. Irving in the last few months alone has gone back on his feelings toward being in Boston long term, opting to wait until the season is complete to address the issue. Many have pointed to the fact that Irving and former teammate LeBron James have seemingly mended bridges and appear to be on good terms once again. This has given some people the notion that these two could potentially want to rejoin forces in LA and try to win a title again. This idea is popular for obvious reason: LeBron obviously needs a clear-cut second option on his team, and Kyrie is clearly unhappy and has mentally checked out on a team that hasn’t lived up to being a Warriors challenger come June. Couple the Irving situation with the fact that the Celtics seem to be playing selfish iso ball rather than a team that feeds off each other, and the overall morale seems so much different from just a year ago at this time.

The next month will make or break the Celtics. Seeding is very important, especially when the further the Celtics’s fall, the harder it’ll be to make up ground on anyone ahead of them. The Celtics have Brad Stevens, an excellent basketball mind, and great on-court talent. But until Kyrie Irving is gone, I truly don’t see any way this team can rebound and be a legit title contender. Irving needs to move on, and they can hit the reset button and try to swing in a bigger star.

If you were just a young laddie or lass entering adolescence when the mid-2000’s rolled around, you probably heard about a little “emo” band named My Chemical Romance. This band, probably known best for their album The Black Parade and it’s title track, embraced the melodramatic and the idea of art being a true spectacle. In their later years they threw aside the mascara and the gloom and embraced a post apocalyptic aesthetic with fast cars, laser guns, and masked killers.

Pictured here: my childhood

But why is any of that relevant in a review for Netflix’s new show The Umbrella Academy? Well, The Umbrella Academy is itself based on a graphic novel from 2007 and that graphic novel is written by My Chemical Romance lead singer Gerard Way. Netflix’s adaptation changes a few details here and there, but keeps most of Gerard Way’s artistic vision intact in the transition from panel to screen. Like the band’s music, the show is almost like an over the top spectacle or performance, and it’s hard not to feel the band’s influence while watching.

The Umbrella Academy is a superhero story, first and foremost. But it has more in common with something like Alan Moore’s Watchmen than something you might see from Marvel Studios.

Things start off with 43 women around the world spontaneously becoming pregnant and immediately giving birth, and this results in 43 babies born with extraordinary superpowers. An eccentric billionaire named Reginald Hargreeves tries to get as many of these children as possible, and seven of the children end up in his care. He raises them to adulthood, fostering their superpowers in whatever ways necessary in order to prepare them for some mysterious future apocalypse.

The bulk of The Umbrella Academy‘s 10 episode run-time is devoted to these seven children as adults, but there are a few flashbacks to their glory days as childhood superheroes. But all this really takes a back seat to the psychological effects that being raised as a superhero can have on a person, and the ramifications of the children’s unusual upbringing are apparent one way or another in nearly every scene. Without giving away too much, these kids had a very hard time growing up and it more or less scarred them all in various ways. A lot of The Umbrella Academy is spent diving into these issues and dissecting each character, and there are surprisingly few huge action set-pieces for a “superhero” show.

The heroes themselves are pretty cool and all played decently well by their actors. They were given only numbers by Reginald Hargreeves, but eventually were given proper names down the line. Luther (#1) is super-strong. Diego (#2) can guide any thrown object wherever he chooses, giving him lethal accuracy with his throwing knives. Allison (#3) can alter reality itself by lying about it, making her lie come true. Klaus (#4) can communicate with the dead. Number Five still lacks a proper name, but can teleport through both space and time. Ben (#6) unfortunately is deceased as the story begins, and his powers are never really explained in depth, but he can summon monstrous tentacles from within. And Vanya (#7) has no powers at all.

The cast, each bearing the umbrella of their respective numbers.

Klaus and Number Five are the two most interesting characters, and it’s not even close. Robert Sheeran and Aidan Gallagher bring each of these characters to life and they also demonstrate the most emotional range of the lot. Klaus on the surface looks to be a shallow junkie only out to have a good time, but the character actually has a huge amount of depth and is probably the most sympathetic character on the show when all is said and done. And Number Five is just so damn cool that it’s hard not to have a grin each time he’s on-screen. Whether he’s teleporting all over the place in a fight or spouting some profane dialogue a kid his age probably shouldn’t be saying, he’s the character carrying the show the hardest both in terms of entertainment and plot. Aidan Gallagher has a bright future ahead of him in Hollywood because he’s an immensely talented 15 year old.

An honorable mention also goes out to the actors behind the two colorful assassins known as Hazel and Cha Cha. Cameron Britton and Mary J. Blige bring to life characters who, in the comics, were completely deranged psychopaths only out for “red licorice whips and instant armageddon.” In the Netflix adaptation, they are both far more human (and only wear their signature masks a few times). They comprise a surprising amount of the show, but their sub-plot is a lot of fun and the characters are a blast to follow.

That’s pretty gosh-darn faithful, if we’re being honest.

Some viewers might be a little turned off by the “timey-wimey”ness of the plot and I’d almost have to agree with them. Time-travel is something that can quickly get out of hand when used as a plot device, and it’s really no different here. There are a few confusing things that happen and a couple of paradoxes that made me pause the show and work them out logically in my head before they made any sense. There’s nothing too altogether egregious, but if this kind of storytelling gives you a headache then The Umbrella Academy might not be for you.

Also, you probably can scratch Doctor Who off your list of things to ever watch.

It also might not be for people who are uncomfortable with violence and all different kinds of abuse. It’s not a crazy violent show, but there are definitely some pretty gory things that happen that might make a few of you squeamish. As hard as this is to say, this show also might not appeal to it’s very demographic. If you’re looking for that gritty and emotional take on superhero stories, just be aware that this show has a few things that might pull you out of the story. It’s based on a graphic novel by a rock band frontman but it still actually contains more song and dance numbers than I thought a show like this would. There’s also an intelligent chimpanzee with a British accent who wears a fancy suit and I even told my girlfriend “any casual viewer still on board with this show’s premise just bailed” when he came on-screen. So if you’re looking for that grim-dark DC Universe take on superheroes, The Umbrella Academy does contain a lot of that kind of storytelling…it just also gets really silly sometimes.

There’s a lot of ridiculous things going on in this show. But trust me when I say that somehow it all just works. If you can push through and buy into some of it’s more outrageous ideas, you’ll be rewarded with a clever and entertaining show that does a lot of things right. It isn’t perfect and it still suffers through those signature Netflix pacing issues (a slow-burn of a plot wrapped up all too hastily when they run out of episodes) but this is my favorite Netflix original since Stranger Things. I was a bit biased going in, having read the comic and listened religiously to the music of Way’s band back in the day, but I think that most people who watch this show will come away impressed with what they managed to do with a pretty crazy premise.

Wednesday night in Cameron Indoor Stadium, people literally paid thousands of dollars to watch some of the best college athletes play in one of sports’ biggest rivalries. Everyone wanted to see the phenom kid live in action. Zion Williamson had been covered on all media outlets essentially everyday since his arrival at Duke, and his highlight dunks just kept feeding us; we wanted more.

Wednesday’s matchup between Duke and North Carolina, however, turned out differently than all had anticipated. Nearly thirty seconds in, Zion literally blew out of his shoe and had fallen to the ground grasping his leg. He walked out of the court on his own, shoe in hand, and never saw the court for the rest of the night. This was just a reminder of how delicate a good thing can truly be.

Zion is the clear consensus top pick in the upcoming NBA draft. There’s little to no doubt about how unique of a player he is. His combination of size and athleticism is just something we’ve never really seen before. He will be an instant game-changer for any team that drafts him.

Maybe his biggest impact is not when he’s on the floor, but when he’s on the bench (or the locker room, in this case). Wednesday against North Carolina, Duke just looked lost. They struggled on both ends of the floor, and they never were really into the game. Sure, maybe players’ minds weren’t in it seeing their star player go down, but there is no doubt that their game plan changes when Zion isn’t present.

So what do we make of this? From reports, it sounds like Zion only suffered a mild knee sprain, which will only hold him from competition for a few weeks. However, if something a little more serious were to happen to him while playing at Duke, what would his future hold for him then?

Let’s face it: Zion has nothing else left to prove. He’s showcased his talents enough for us to know that he will be a top pick in this upcoming draft. Why risk millions of dollars to play at the collegiate level where he’s earning zero dollars (paying the players is a separate argument, so I’ll try to steer away from that)?

Some scouts will question his competitive drive if he does decide to sit. However, if you have the number one pick in the draft, are you really not going to pick this once-in-a-generation talent due to the fact that he sat out nearly half the season? I think not.

For the sake of his future and health, Zion should sit out the rest of his collegiate career. We’ve seen it before with high-level athletes participating in collegiate competitions and injuring themselves. Guys like Jaylon Smith and Jake Butt injured themselves in their respective bowl games, which hurt their draft stock and cost them millions of dollars. Sure, football is a lot more physical and players more prone to injuries than basketball, but the risk still isn’t worth it (Spencer Dinwiddie also suffered an injury in college which caused him to fall in the draft).

It’s been proposed to the league shortly after Zion’s injury that they rethink the idea letting players straight out of high school apply to play in the NBA. Now, I don’t necessarily know how I feel about the idea, but it would help players like Zion avoid risking injury in college and be able to move straight to the NBA. Some players do need development, and college is perfect for that.

If they do let players straight from high school play in the NBA, I’m sure we will see our share of players that could have used a year or two in college to develop against inferior talent before jumping to the big leagues (hello Kwame Brown?). I think letting players out of high school participate in the draft combine is a perfect way for them to gauge their abilities and get an idea on where they stand and if they think they could use a year or two in college.

The basketball fan in me really wants to see Zion keep playing. He’s great for college basketball, and is a human highlight reel. However, for his sake, I really think he should sit this one out. He has nothing left to prove, and only risks his future by playing.

With the beginning of a new NFL offseason set to kick off in less than two months with the NFL Combine & Draft, there are a few teams searching for a new face to lead their offense.

There is no shortage of options out there this year. So while it’s great to know exactly who will be under center for your team next season, the current crop of names between free agency, potential trades, & the draft prospects is one of the best there has been in years, in my opinion.

With names such as Teddy Bridgewater, Nick Foles, Dwayne Haskins, & Kyler Murray available for the right price or pick, those teams finding themselves without a starting QB won’t stay that way for long if they can land one of these guys.

One team who started the off season on the list of looking for new QBs, the Denver Broncos, found their new leading man after dealing for Super Bowl winning QB Joe Flacco from Baltimore.

Of course this list all depends on how sold certain teams’ new coaches (not on this list) are on their current QB situation such as Arizona, Tampa Bay, Cincinnati, & Oakland.

From what has been said since the end of the season, all of those teams look to be sticking with their current players for now. But as we know, coaches love going out to get their hand picked guy for their system, so anything can happen.

So with those teams also out of the market for now, that only leaves a hand full of teams still searching.

Here is where I think the top names floating around will end up.

New York Giants

Let’s just get this out of the way now: an aging Eli Manning just isn’t going to cut it anymore. He’s been on the decline for a few years now, but he was at least able to get you 6-7 wins and keep you in games. But that Eli is long gone, and now it’s time to move forward. I expect for them to let Eli play out the final year of his contract and draft their QB of the future early in the first round. They currently hold the 6th overall pick and the way the current draft order looks, New York should be the first team to take a QB, assuming there are no trades or shocking picks before them.

New QB: Draft Dwayne Haskins

Jacksonville Jaguars

Well, after yet another year of watching Blake Bordles struggle to live up to expectations as the leader of the offense in Jacksonville, it appears the team is finally ready to admit he’s not the guy. After giving him a contract extension for helping “lead” the team to the AFC title game last season, he took a huge step backwards and even was benched for a few games due to poor play. While it’s easy for Jacksonville to look in their division at how well their rivals have drafted at the position, I think their best bet is to go get a veteran player who can come in and lead this team from day one. After watching Deshaun Watson and Andrew Luck have the kind of years they did, the Jaguars don’t have time to let a young guy mature and grow if they still intend to win now.

New QB: Sign Nick Foles

Miami Dolphins

FOXBORO, MA – SEPTEMBER 18: Ryan Tannehill #17 of the Miami Dolphins runs with the ball during the first half against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium on September 18, 2016 in Foxboro, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

Ryan Tannehill has all the physical tools to be a very good NFL quarterback. We’ve seen flashes of what he can do when he’s healthy and has weapons around him. The issue is, he’s hardly ever healthy and when he is, he’s most often struggling. Miami is looking to start fresh with their new head coach Brian Flores and presumably a new signal caller under center as well. They’re currently set to pick in the middle of the 1st round at 13, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see them jump up via trade to get their guy. They don’t necessarily have the same pressure to win now like the Jaguars or Giants do, so they could go that route, but I can also see them bringing in a veteran to compete similar to what the Browns did. Regardless of what they do, they don’t want to fall behind division foes the Bills and Jets who drafted their franchise QBs last year.

Alex Smith is still recovering from the gruesome leg injury he sustained halfway through this past season, and the team that started off pretty hot never looked quite the same. Colt McCoy clearly isn’t the guy to lead your team through the season if you expect to compete, and that’s the reason he’s been looked at as a backup QB for the majority of his career. Washington isn’t the most flashy or sexy team by any means, but with the right player leading them they can be competent and could compete for a wild card spot, if not win the constantly shaky NFC East. I think they’ll more than like go for a veteran guy, and then try to get a QB later in the draft of day two or three.

As San Diego Studios (SDS) does every year, the developer live stream schedule for their MLB The Show series began today with the subject being gameplay improvements in MLB The Show 19.

The development team hosted two different live streams today with the first one being focused on fielding improvements; so that will be my focus for this piece. I’ll have a separate article for the hitting side of things.

During the fielding improvements stream, three members of the development team discussed a list of items:

Improvements to the fielder ratings system (Playing players out of position or in secondary positions)

Animations for fielding hits off the wall and new surface types

Improving efficiency for fielding animations

Combating exploits from previous installments

Introducing new animations

Adjusting the fielder tier system

The developers, as they do with each stream, then ended it by revealing a brand new Legend added into the game. That legend was Jimmie Foxx in case you didn’t want to watch the entire stream below.

Obviously, there were a lot of things covered in the nearly 90 minute stream. However, I wanted to focus on a few things that really stood out to me: the animations off the wall, the efficiency for animations, and removing the exploits users saw in previous years.

Off The Wall Animations

In previous installments, there was never any sort of guide of how to play the ball when it would hit off the wall. As a result, often times, the ball would bounce over the head of your outfielder and roll for what seemed like an eternity. Now, that’s been fixed as long as you have good defensive players. Here’s a preview of what it would look like in the game:

This is without a doubt a great addition, because it feels like it gives the user more control over their players and where to position them, rather than playing a guessing game on how to field the hit off the wall. One note from this section of the stream was that the ball will react differently to hitting different surfaces. In this instance, the ball ricochets off a brick wall, but at a place like Wrigley, known for having ivy on the outfield walls, the ball will react differently than it did in this example.

Fielding Efficiency

The next big point was the improvement in fielding efficiency. Because screenshots are difficult to showcase this improvement, here’s a short video from their GameStop Monday series on Twitter.

The video generally covers everything they discussed in the stream, but you can see the fielding efficiency improvements compared to prior years.

The fielding efficiency is a big deal because it allows the user to play at a quicker pace and reward those who have a great sense of reaction in the game. Especially for plays like trying to turn a double play, for example. The days of being stuck in an animation, and it costing you an out, seem to be nearing an end.

Tying into the animation efficiency, this helps crack down on the base-running exploits people could use in online play to steal runs. For example, in MLB The Show 18, let’s say there were runners on first and second and a grounder is hit to the shortstop. By the time the throw to second base was completed and then the second throw to first base, a user could score by rounding third and beating a third throw to home plate relatively easily.

That has now been eliminated. As a result of improving the efficiency of animations, users will be able to branch throws together more quickly and complete the triple play at home plate. This should hopefully cause users to have to play the game the way it’s meant to be played. However, I do understand that it is a video game, so I’m sure exploits will still be found at some point during the year.

If you would like to follow along up until launch day, here’s a look at their complete stream schedule. Their twitch information is also in the bottom right corner of the picture below.

Overall, this is a good start in my opinion. MLB The Show 17 and MLB The Show 18 were both pretty disappointing from a competitive gameplay standpoint. After today’s news, I’m feeling pretty optimistic as a fan.

Last week, the gaming world received somewhat of a jolt when it come to battle royale games. Respawn Entertainment, creators of the much beloved Titanfall & Titanfall 2, created what is essentially the third part of the trilogy. Apex Legends is another entrant into the battle royale first-person shooter mold that was really blown into another stratosphere by Fortnite.Apex Legends is in the same universe of Titanfall 2 but after developers saw how popular the likes of Fortnite and Blackout, from Call of Duty, were they decided to pitch any ideas for Titanfall 3 and went the BR route.

Apex Legends allows players to use a selection of 8 “legends”. Each legend or character have different abilities that assist them in the game and in the midst of gun warfare. The game has an array of that use different forms of ammo. The basics of the game follows that of any BR game. The lobby holds a certain amount of players (the number is 60 in Apex). You then make a drop onto the rather large map and select among several different terrains. The 60 players are split into 20 teams of 3. Then of course there is the dreaded “storm.” The storm shrinks in making the map smaller and smaller every 3 minutes. What makes this game unique is the fact that as you move around the map and go from different places, the game will actually tell you what tier loot you can expect to find in certain areas. This allows gamers to get familiar with the map and pick the spots where they can rack up the most loot before going on the hunt to pick off the competition.

The Downside

Apex Legends does a lot of things right, however, as with most games that are freshly-launched, there are a few issues with it as of now. Mainly the best loot often is found mid-match, or if you run a risk drop on a supply ship right off jump. Jumping right into action or into a highly-contested area often leads to multiple people making a mad dash for a weapon or simply just using melees to down a person if a gun is readily available. A more balanced approach to loot would greatly increase people spreading out and really searching the map for the best places to drop.

One of the biggest, if not the biggest, issues is the fact that Squads is the only option in the game right now, which then means you’ll have to squad up with randoms, or a buddy and a random third. This isn’t too big of an issue yet, but with such a new game out, there are plenty of noobs out and about, which makes it hard to strategize along with working together to maximize your team and get that precious dub. These two issues would greatly improve the game in the short and long term.

Apex Legends is available on the Xbox One, PS4, along with PC. It has only been out for a week but it has already accumulated a player base of 25 million players. For the people who are sick and tired of Fortnite, it appears that there is a new game on the horizon that at least for now can compete and maybe even provide an escape from the dryness that FN has created.

The Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) business is boomin’. People all around are putting in lineups on all kinds websites (the biggest two being DraftKings and FanDuel) and paying attention to basketball in a different way than ever before. Instead of cheering for teams, bettors have turned their attentions to specific players in order to win some big money.

Growth of FanDuel from the years 2011-2014. Graphic provided by Rotogrinders.

I have found myself spending at least an hour daily paying attention to fantasy sports, whether that be researching to find my perfect lineup or constantly checking my phone and seeing how my drafted players are doing. That brings me to this: it takes time to be a successful DFS player. I started DFS in 2014. I felt like I had enough sports knowledge that this would be easy money, but I quickly found myself at the bottom of contests not knowing what I was doing wrong. I’m writing this to help those that are finding themselves in the same situation. I’m going to give some tips that I have found useful in becoming a better DFS player.

Choosing the Right Contests

There are two main type of contests on DraftKings and FanDuel: cash and GPP (Guarenteed Prize Pools). Cash lineups are less risky but also less rewarding. These are your double ups, 50/50’s, and head to head matchups. You have a better chance of winning these, but the reward is pretty much what you put in. Personally, I love playing double ups. Just under 50% of the contestants will win and double their money.

GPP’s are your high risk high reward contests. Only a small percentage of contestants will win money but if you absolutely kill it and come first and a large entry contest you could come away with thousands on a smaller bet.

Sure, GPP’s sound way better, but DFS is a grind and the season is long. Most won’t find themselves building a bankroll this way. Spend more money on those low-reward cash contests and don’t throw away your money.

Use Your Resources

Until you have time to do a lot of full on research and have additional resources that you pay for, Rotogrinders and FantasyLabs should be very helpful. Both of these sites provide free tools including podcasts to help you become a better DFS player.

Use Statistics to Your Advantage

There are a lot of statistics out there to look at, so finding the right ones is key to winning more money.

The best statistic to use is minutes. More minutes correlate to higher point totals. If you see a player will be on limited minutes, you’ll probably want to stay away from them because they won’t have as much opportunity to score as they would when playing their full minutes. On the other hand, when a starter doesn’t play it’s going to open up minutes for other players around them. Targeting a player who takes over that starting role is how we find the best value on the slate.

Another important statistic is DvP. This tells us how well a team can defend certain positions. For example, when choosing a center, you likely won’t want to play one who will be defended by players like Marc Gasol or Myles Turner. You have to pay attention to this though, because this number could be misleading. If Gasol was out for a game then playing a center would be fine against Memphis, even though the DvP doesn’t look favorable. You also wouldn’t want to use this early in the season where the sample size is small.

I start every days research with looking at Vegas odds. Experts spend a lot of time coming up with over/unders and teams point projections, and we should be taking advantage of that. A game with a higher projected score will give us more fantasy points. Be aware of the games that have blowout potential. A blowout will result in starters not playing as many minutes.

There are many other statistics to use such as usage rate or PER, but finding out how to value each statistic will depend on how well you do.

Be Available Before Lock

This is very important for NBA daily fantasy. Injuries can be announced minutes before lock and can shake up your whole lineup. Check your lineups about 15 minutes before lock. Make sure none of your players have been listed as out because a score of a zero from a player can completely kill your lineup. My biggest tip here is have “if” statements. You should know if a player is designated as “questionable” during the day, so when you’re initially creating a lineup tell yourself “if player A doesn’t play then I will insert player B.” It may not always be such an easy swap, but be ready because injury news can happen minutes before lock (and unfortunately after lock as well).

Want to compare lineups or need some advice? Find me on Twitter where I post my DraftKings cash lineup almost nightly.

The Division I Men’s Basketball Committee has revealed their top 16 teams.

If the season were to end today, Tennessee, Duke, Virginia, and Gonzaga would all be number one seeds. Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, and Michigan State all would be two seeds, followed by Purdue, Kansas, Houston, and Marquette as three seeds, and finally Iowa St., Nevada, Louisville, and Wisconsin as four seeds.

At first glance, you see just how dominant the Big Ten and ACC have been this year, featuring 50% of the top 16 teams from these two conferences. Top-to-bottom, both of these conferences are tough, where each victory must be earned in conference play, even against teams at the bottom of the standings.

The Big 12 is having a bit of a down year, which is interesting since Kansas, the conference’s top representative for the past decade, is also having a down year. There aren’t as many elite teams in the conference as years past, but should still have quite a few teams in the tournament this year.

The Big 12 may be having a down year, but they aren’t as bad as compared to the PAC 12, who have zero teams in the top 16. The conference as a whole is just terrible this year, and will likely send only a couple teams to the big dance.

The SEC has two legitimate contenders in Tennesee and Kentucky, but after that the conference isnt quite as competitive. These two will likely be the only teams to represent the conference late in the tournament.

Nevada, Marquette, and Gonzaga all come from non-power five conferences, so they are tougher for the committee to gauge their true ranking. However, a couple non-power five conferences have some big wins over the top conferences, most notably Gonzaga’s win over then-number one ranked Duke.

One thing that stood out to me that I found intriguing was Michigan State’s number two ranking. Before Saturday’s win over Minnesota, MSU had lost three straight games, all to non-ranked opponents. It appears the committee is valuing high quality wins over bad losses, which MSU has numerous in both categories. This is good news for bubble teams like Indiana, who also have some bad losses, but have some really high quality teams too.

There’s still plenty of games left in the season, as well as conference tournaments to be played at the conclusion of the season, so teams will have plenty of chances to gain some of them high quality wins and make a case for themselves.

Between the college football playoffs, a surprisingly intriguing first half of the NBA season, & the NFL playoffs all coming to an end in the last month, it was honestly pretty easy to forget the college basketball season is already nearly halfway over.

Of course, we never actually “forgot,” thanks to the likes of Zion Williamson practically owning real estate in every night’s opening highlight package of SportsCenter. But, overall, it has been overshadowed.

With football now completely out of the way and the NBA season nearing its All-Star break, college hoops can take center stage as we inch closer to that magical time of year: March Madness.

It’s honestly perfect timing for the kids of the hardwood to have the spotlight, as there are quite a few big matchups that will go along way for seeding come Selection Sunday.

Here’s a few of those matchups coming up: (ranking may change prior to games)

Saturday, Feb. 9th – #2 Duke vs. # 3 Virginia

Monday, Feb. 11th – #3 Virginia vs. #8 North Carolina

Saturday, Feb. 16th – #1 Tennessee vs. #5 Kentucky

As you may have noticed by the games I chose to include, most of the “power” and excitement mostly revolves around the ACC (per usual) and the SEC. Starting to sound like a repeat of the football season, right?

There are no doubts about some great teams that will be very dangerous once the big dance begins, like the always stout Gonzaga Bulldogs, Championship Runner-up Michigan Wolverines & the champions Villanova Wildcats.

No matter how the games and selections play out, it looks like we’re in for another great season of bracket-busting games and exciting matchups.

From the Big East to the PAC-12, the amount of talent spread across the college hoops landscape should make for one of the most challenging tournament to predict there’s been a long time.

Now with that being said, I fully expect Duke to be the lone team left standing when it’s all said and done. But, that doesn’t mean I don’t think they will have to work extremely hard for it.

Duke has that rare mix of talent, hype, & down right star power that is hard to find in one team at this level. They’re practically the Warriors of college basketball with the amount of talent they’ve stockpiled on their team.

What makes the Blue Devils so tough also is that they can go into any opponents gym in the country, and with just a few fast breaks & scoring runs, turn the home team’s crowd against them!

It’s almost a guarantee that Williamson, RJ Barrett, Tre Jones, & Cam Reddish will be lottery picks in this year’s NBA Draft, if they all choose to go one and done like we think they will.

I have faith in my Kentucky Wildcats to make it deep into the tournament, but as talented as they are I don’t see them being able to hold up against the star power of the freshmen-led Blue Devils.

We’ve already saw how they stack up against Duke at the beginning of the season, and incase anyone didn’t watch, it wasn’t even a close game. Duke handled the Wildcats easily, winning 118-84.

Now granted the Wildcats have rebounded, and even after a few close loses, Coach Cal has them right back up into the top five where they belong. I’m excited to see how far they can go, after not being sold on them early on in the year.

In my perfect scenario, I would like to see Kentucky have a chance at redemption in the National Championship game, but it’s still just a little too early to think about that. Especially conference foe Tennessee holding down the #1 ranking right now.

But back to my point, which is it’s finally time for the kids on campus to shine in the spotlight. With only a few weeks away from conference tournaments & Selection Sunday, this is arguably the best time of the year.

Coach Mike Krzyzewski has his team on fire and poised to help him join the Six Ring Club, alongside recent Super Bowl winning coach Bill Belichick.

With just about two months left in the season, it remains to be seen who will be the ones to step up and snatch the title away from the season long favorite similar to how the Clemson Tigers did to the Alabama Crimson Tide on the gridiron.

Los Angeles Rams’ Jared Goff (16) reacts after his pass was intercepted during the second half of the NFL Super Bowl 53 football game against the New England Patriots, Sunday, Feb. 3, 2019, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

After Sunday’s troubling loss to the Patriots, a game that saw a vaunted Rams defense score just 3 points, Sean McVay took the blame by simply stating that he had been out coached. While some would tend to agree, there are others who would say that Jared Goff was the problem for the whole offense. He wasn’t reading defenses properly, and he missed several throws or held the ball too long in some instances. And when faced with an all out blitz, he was forced into just throwing a ball up for grabs that lead to a game-sealing INT. Goff came into the league with some promise, as he was lauded for being the most pro ready QB in his draft class, however once Carson Wentz took the league by storm and Goff looked downright pitiful in his rookie season a lot of people were ready to write off the young QB, but with just two years under Sean McVay, Goff has matured into a solid QB who can put up big time numbers.

Nov 26, 2017; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay watches the game from the sideline in the first quarter against New Orleans Saints during an NFL football game at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Goff was decent for a majority of the season. In an offense that relies on play action, Goff excelled and looked like an early MVP candidate. The loss of deep threat Cooper Kupp proved to be a turning point for the Rams (along with Todd Gurley vanishing in the NFC title game and Super Bowl). We all know that Jared is only in his third year and under McVay has grown and really matured into a solid QB. But solid doesn’t beat the Patriots. Credit to Bill Belichick & Brian Flores for scheming and essentially calling the perfect defensive game, but Goff did under perform in certain spots. Goff finished the game 19/38 for 229 yards and one pick. However these numbers, while decent aren’t at all the numbers Rams fans were use to seeing from their young QB.

The Rams are young and the defense is stout, McVay will come back hungrier and of course Kupp will be healthy, but the main cause for concern will still be Goff. I’m sure Sundays loss was very eye opening and help him grow as a QB but as of right now I’m selling on Goff, while he can get you to the big game, if the opposing QB is far superior he will always be outclassed and the city of LA won’t win a super bowl as long as the Rams go to represent them.

Super Bowl LIII turned out to be a snooze fest. If you like long touchdowns, exciting plays, and high scoring games, well, this game wasn’t for you. A total of three points was scored in the first half and only 16 combined points in the entire game making Super Bowl LIII the lowest scoring Super Bowl in NFL history. Neither Tom Brady nor Jared Goff could even connect with a receiver for a touchdown. The only touchdown in the game came on a two yard run by Sony Michele.

At least I could count on the commercials, right? Wrong. Either my sense of humor has changed throughout the years or commercials have gotten worse and worse. Enough with the negativity though, I’m here to give you the top three moments from the big game.

1. NFL 100 Commercial

As a whole, the Super Bowl commercials weren’t great. Not many gave me a good laugh or were overall memorable. Even the Budweiser commercial disappointed me this year, and that’s the one I always look forward to the most.

The NFL 100 spot happened to be my favorite of the night. It featured fresh stars like Patrick Mahomes and Odell Beckham Jr., with appearances from newly added Hall of Famers like Ed Reed and Tony Gonzalez, plus legends Joe Montana and Emmitt Smith. It even included professional gamer Ninja and viral YouTube sensation Sam Gordon.

2. SpongeBob Halftime Show Appearance

Maroon 5, Travis Scott, and Big Boi didn’t give us the best halftime show ever, but at least they recognized who could. It doesn’t get better than SpongeBob singing “Sweet Victory” with Patrick on the drums. Rapper Travis Scott gave a small tribute to the season two episode before performing Sicko Mode during the halftime show.

Would I have rather watched more than five seconds of the cartoon halftime show? Obviously, but I loved the tribute to the creator of SpongeBob, Stephen Hillenburg, who passed away last November.

3. Punting

Hey, something from the actual game!

Usually long touchdowns, great catches, and hard hits grab my attention for best plays of the game, but special teams play gave us a show since neither offense was able to do so.

Punters are typically aiming to down punts anywhere inside the 20 yard-line, but both Johnny Hekker and Ryan Allen were looking to do even better. Hekker downed punts at the 8, 2, and 12-yard-line while Allen was able to down some punts at the 6, 2, and 7-yard-line.

On top of that, Hekker recorded the longest punt in Super Bowl history with a 65-yard punt. The previous recorded was actually held by Allen, who punted a ball 64 yards in Super Bowl XLIX.

The NBA in 2019 almost seems like more of a soap opera than an actual professional sports league. Every week there is big news coming out of the league, and very rarely does it ever pertain to on-court activities. Whether it be players making ridiculous tweets, demanding trades, or wearing wild outfits, there is a never ending carousel of drama. Even on the brink of the biggest NFL weekend of the year, Super Bowl weekend, the NBA is dominating headlines thanks to Anthony Davis. Some news that comes out of the NBA even seems to good to be true and that is why you are here today. Let’s take a look at some NBA conspiracy theories that may explain such phenomena.

Joel Embiid is a Monstar

Woah! What? You’re saying the Sixers All-Star center has been taken over by aliens from Moron Mountain who haven’t been heard from since 1996? Not exactly. Embiid is a new form of a Monstar. Before I get ahead of myself, let’s take a look back at Embiid’s history.

Joel Embiid grew up in Cameroon and didn’t touch a basketball until the age of 15. In fact, he had planned on playing professional volleyball in Europe until he was discovered at a basketball camp by NBA player Luc Mbah a Moute. Embiid grew to an astonishing seven feet tall and moved to the United States to be a hooper. After spending a year at Kansas, he was drafted third overall to the tanking 76ers, led by GM Sam Hinkie. Embiid went on to miss both of his first two NBA seasons and a majority of his third. At this point, Sam Hinkie was willing to do anything to see his process succeed, including placing a curse on his star big man. Ever since Embiid’s emergence as an NBA All-Star, Sixers rookies Ben Simmons, Markelle Fultz, and Zhaire Smith have all been plagued with injuries and missed their entire rookie seasons. Coincidence? I think not. Embiid sucks the powers out of his rookies and uses it to become the most dominant big man in the NBA.

Michael Jordan Rigged the All Star Game

Last week, the NBA All-Star starters were announced and were pretty much as expected – with one exception. Kemba Walker was selected as a first-time All-Star starter over 76ers superstar Ben Simmons. All of the major media members and knowledgeable fans alike were in agreement the Eastern Conference starters should have been Kyrie Irving, Ben Simmons, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kawhi Leonard and Joel Embiid. So the question must be asked: why was Kemba chosen? For starters, look at the location. All-Star weekend is located in Charlotte for the first time since 1991. Charlotte, you say? The franchise owned by Michael Jordan, the man with the most pull of anyone in the National Basketball Association? With the team’s lack of recent success, you would think Jordan would want a hometown player participating in the big game. Not only would this boost fan attendance at All-Star weekend and increase revenue, it could also sway his star player, Kemba Walker, to remain in Charlotte for the long haul.

The Mavericks Will Have an All-Euro Starting Lineup in 2020

This one isn’t really a conspiracy theory, it’s more just my wishful thinking of something that’s never been done before. With that said, there are a couple ways this could play out. The Mavericks already have four Europeans on the team in Luka Doncic, Kristaps Porzingis, Dirk Nowitzki, and Maxi Kleber. Dirk is likely on his way out following this season, but Kristaps and Luka are locked in to the starting lineup, with the possibility of Kleber as well. That’s three down, so who could fill the other two spots?

Ricky Rubio is being involved in trade talks to Memphis for Mike Conley. This move would initiate a rebuild in Memphis and Rubio could easily be redirected to a third team. Who better than the Dallas Euro-Mavs? Aside from Rubio, Mark Cuban and company could set their sights on UFA Bojan Bogdanovic, Dario Saric, or Tomas Satoransky. While all this is exciting, Harrison Barnes would still be in the starting lineup, so this scenario is unlikely barring a trade or injury (hopefully not) to the former Golden State Warrior.

The Pacers Curse of the Palace

This is a theory unlike the others, in that it is a long-standing curse that has plagued one of the smallest market teams in the NBA, the Indiana Pacers. The Pacers have been a perennial title contender while never actually bringing home the gold. Think back to the ’90s when Reggie Miller and company were a persistent threat in the East, but could never quite seal the deal. After their decade of shortcomings, something catastrophic happened to the franchise. Just when the Pacers seemed poised to make a title run with the likes of Ron Artest, Reggie Miller and Jermaine O’Neal, they were abruptly stopped due to the Malice at the Palace, which would cast bad karma on the team for the next two decades. Ever since the notorious brawl, Pacer’s superstars have been torn from their prime with injuries more than any other team in the league. Danny Granger’s career was littered with nagging knee injuries that prevented him from ever reaching his true potential. Granger was replaced by Paul George who had a gruesome leg injury at a team USA scrimmage in 2014. Most recently, Victor Oladipo suffered a torn quadriceps tendon just days before being selected to his second All-Star appearance. The Curse of the Palace is a real thing, the only question is – when will it stop?